11 Great Coffee-Table Books That Stylish People Have in Their Own Homes

By Juliet Izon

Oversize, beautiful books don’t just elevate the look of your coffee table, they’re also a subtle way to signal your interests to your guests, whether travel, contemporary art or pop-culture nostalgia. To help you cultivate your own stack of coffee-table books, we tapped style-centric homeowners for their personal top picks. 

Portrait of a street artist

Packed with prints by the late Neo-Expressionist painter known for his graffiti- and post-punk influenced works, this colorful book is the one Los Angeles-based interiors stylist Antoinette Arrington keeps front and center. Flipping through it brings back memories of her own forays into painting and collage when she was younger, and as well as amazement at all the artist was able to accomplish in his short life. “I love his expressive and raw artwork; especially ‘Untitled (Refrigerator),’ which features a fridge covered in sketches,” she says.

Joyful look at an iconic toy

At first glance, a book about plastic building blocks might not seem like a coffee table-worthy choice, but this retrospective is surprisingly inspiring, according to Carly Bigi, founder of Laws of Motion, a company that helps people find well-fitting clothing using AI. She notes that Legos’ “limitless genius…rooted in endless potential and mutability,” resonates beyond their function as toys. “It’s proof positive of how, together, we can reimagine what’s possible in the world.” Among the book’s 304 pages are profiles of Lego fanatics like professional Lego builder Nathan Sawaya and animator Angus MacLane, who created CubeDudes, as well as beautiful images of massive Lego creations like a microscale Yankee Stadium—plenty of inspiration for anyone who has ever played with, and loved, Legos.

Artful study of American treasures

This avian-themed book occupies a stand in the library at The Swag, the Waynesville, N.C., hotel Anne Colquitt owns with her husband David. The book is intriguing, not only to the many ornithologists who come to the hotel to view area birds in the high-altitude habitat but also to other guests because the artist’s watercolor paintings of the birds are breathtaking in their detail. The watercolors, presented here in their entirety and newly photographed, are what formed the basis for John James Audubon’s more well-known engravings. Images range from a flock of parrots mid-squawk to a grouping of many species of small owls. Says Colquitt, “Every few weeks I like to turn the page to a new bird, and it feels like a refresh to the art in the room.”

Compendium of a pioneering designer

As one of the first Black designers to find success in the mainstream U.S. fashion market, Willi Smith was a trailblazer in the world of modern streetwear, known for his affordable yet genre-blurring pieces—which makes this book of essays on Smith’s style evolution an engaging one to have on hand, says Matt Kane, founder of Creatives Want Change, a nonprofit that offers scholarships and programs for young Black designers. Apart from showcasing his fashions, the book documents his collaborations with celebrated artists like Nam June Paik and Christo. Kane hopes the book will make young designers more cognizant of Smith’s impact on the industry; and this introduction to his work and legacy is a wise choice “especially as many of his oversize shapes are in fashion right now.”

Peek into a Spanish wonderland

Linden Pride is behind numerous restaurants and bars that are not only incredibly popular but also beautiful to inhabit; he opened Dante and Dante West Village, one of which has won a Best Bar in the World Award, for example—so it’s no surprise that he’s drawn to elevated visuals. A favorite title he keeps on display at home is this collection of vibrant photographs from the European playground of Ibiza, featuring everything from its signature dive-friendly cliffs to its famed (and famous) denizens to its trademark blue-and-white local architecture. He’s so enamored of the book that it’s even provided inspiration for some of the restaurant concepts he’s developing abroad, he says. On a more basic level, the cover brings a “fun pop of color” to a coffee table.

Spotlight on sport and style

Featuring anecdotes from ’70s tennis great Stan Smith’s life—lamenting his size 13 feet, collaborations with the likes of Pharrell and Raf Simons—and documenting the rise of the cult-classic Adidas shoe bearing his name, this book is both a time capsule and a conversation starter, says tennis fan and celebrity manicurist Deborah Lippmann. “Whenever I have guests over, they gravitate toward this book, intrigued by the title,” she says. They continue to flip through, amazed by the amount of collaborations and versions there have been, as well as the street-style photographs of the famed sneakers, Lippmann adds. (Her favorite in the book is a multicolored speckled pair: “It makes me think of my shoes when I drop polish on them…but so much chicer.”)

Collection of Black utopia photographs

Hans Ulrich Obrist and Deborah Willis

I Can Make You Feel Good: Tyler Mitchell

$33 at Amazon

Many people may be familiar with celebrated photographer and filmmaker Tyler Mitchell’s polished images for magazines like Vogue or i-D (he was the first Black American to shoot a cover for American Vogue), but the artist’s personal work, spotlighted in this book, is what Kane loves most. The brightly saturated, full-bleed images of young Black men and women depicted in positions of power or experiencing joy are quieter but still deeply beautiful, he says. “There is a richness to the color and light that I find really inspiring,” Kane says.

Eye-opening view of the world 

Another favorite of Bigi’s is this series of death-defying images by adventure photographer, mountaineer and Academy Award-winning director Jimmy Chin, from aerial shots of craggy cliffs to uninhabited expanses of snow to starlit images of climbers ascending peaks at night. Its breathtaking portrayal of the mental and physical capacity of human potential is what she finds most compelling—and which may be a powerful takeaway for anyone who happens upon it on your coffee table. “The ethos of outsize drive and passion while relentlessly pursuing your purpose and offering the world a different perspective transcends rock climbing,” Bigi says, adding that it may resonate with anyone on a “journey and mission to leave the world a better place.”

Deep dive on car culture

Matt Hranek

A Man & His Car: Iconic Cars and Stories from the Men Who Love Them

$23 at Amazon

This intimate compendium of men and their cars is another top pick of Pride’s for its personal stories of bold-name vehicle lovers, from actor Ed Burns to basketball great Shaquille O’Neal, accompanied by sleek photos of their favorite wheels. Author Hranek, who is also a friend of Pride’s, “takes the time to get to know each of the subjects” in presenting their passion, he says. “It’s a great insight into a love affair with vintage cars.”

Food for thought

Curiosity is at the core of this ambitious compilation in which photographer and author Melanie Dunea captured famous chefs’ ideas of what they would want their last meal to be—with cheeky portraits (think Alex Atala posing topless with a cigarette or Tom Colicchio dangling from the second story of a barn). Forough Vakili, chef and founder of Le Bon Nosh, never tires of seeing it on her coffee table. Every so often “I’ll browse through the pages for food inspiration and ideas,” she says, “and the photography is super cool on its own.”

Delightfully esoteric encyclopedia

When Whitney Frances Falk, founder and CEO of sustainable furniture company ZZ Driggs, found an original, first-edition print of this book for $25 in a Hudson Valley antiques barn, she had no idea it would turn out to be one of her most treasured discoveries to date. The beautifully illustrated array of arcane subject matter—including examinations and explanations of alchemy, the Zodiac, gemology, Tarot and more—is what she finds intriguing, for herself and for others. “I won’t even try to illuminate the findings within,” she says, “but I assure you that every time you open any page, you’ll be enchanted by all the mysteries that surround us.”